Well, I finally saw it happen after thirty years of flyfishing. My buddy slammed the tailgate on his Redington Redfly rod. Does anyone have any experience with Redington customer service for such things? Any advice other than don’t do that anymore? Also another friend showed up with his young son and after his son landed a steelhead we noticed that the tiptop was missing on his rod. We ended up using my rod (one of the few times I didn’t bring an extra rod) and each of us landed and released two steelhead apiece.
They replaced one of my boat rods last year. This rod was given to me by a client and I even told the rep that. She said no problem. So, in a short time I recieved a new, upgraded model, the model that was broke was discontinued. I really do not expect that you will have a ny trouble with them.
Redington is owned by Sage and they stand behind their products. While I usually only fish Sage rods, I do own three Redington rods. One broke on me once when I was fishing the Yakima River (not MY fault:rolleyes:). Since I live close to Bainbridge Island, I drove there and the people at Redington exchanged the rod for me. No problem.
x I have done that TWICE and i have a friend that has done that as well. Thats enough to torque anyone off. I’m sorry do hear about your loss, good luck!!!
thanks for the replies. I will pass that along to my friend. He will be glad to get it replaced or fixed. I hope I never see that again, I tried to get him to stop jus t as he did it. Made me feel kind of sick when he opened the tailgate.
I’ve broken two Sage rods tigfly and the service is great so no worries if Redington repairs are handled by them. Give them a call and hopefully they’ve relaxed the $40 turn around for the repair/replacement.
…for a crochity old flybum, but fly fishing is a niche market and very competitive…the manufacturers keep upping the ante to garner
sales and following. Case in point: I have a Bucks Bag split chest pack that I was going to sell here but discovered during photo shoot that there was a flaw in a seam that held a strap in place and same was fraying and coming loose. I called the Buck’s Bag folks out in Boise and they said to the effect, ‘oh, no problem, send it along and we’ll repair it under the lifetime warranty’.
Mind, I’ve had this Buck’s Bag chest pack for about 4 or 5 years, though unused. They said that din’t matter…lifetime means lifetime. I think it’s about service now more than anything else. Did you know one company that sells flyrods will next day you one to the town closest to the destination river you’re fishing with no questions asked and you send the broken rod in when you return home? Yep it’s true.
Anyway, point is…the niche market and the heavy competition for our business…luck us huh?..has made it so we can buy fly gear once and they’ll keep replacing it should it break. I imagine the benefit for the companies that offer ‘lifetime’ is that fools like me will take the time to bang out a diatribe in support of a company I’ve delt with in this fashion…works for me…works for them too !
My rational mind agrees with you, but then again, the cost of a rod with a ‘lifetime unconditional warranty’ generally includes additional cost proportionate to the likelihood that they will be requested to honor the warranty. Couple that with the term “unconditional”, and hey, they sold the warranty that way, they should honor the warranty, unconditionally. And from what I hear, they do.
Your friend has joined a large, elite group of anglers who go all the way back to the first fishing rod. I don’t know of anyone who fishes regularly who hasn’t KO ed a good rod. Here in SC, car doors do take a toll but the ever present screen door and ceiling fan are right behind it. This is almost a rite of passage like crossing the equator 8T
I’m with you on that one fishbum. Some companies charge a small fee (their parts cost) for replacing the broken section …and that I can abide by if the rod broke because of my negligence. It’s what keeps me loyal to those companies. HOWEVER it irks me to no end to be forced to pay higher purchase prices (to pad the no fault warranties offered by some). I don’t agree that Sage or others should be encouraged to relax there replacement part costs for rods broken by the users fault, but then again… if someone wants to pay $700 for a rod I can make for $300… enough said.
With that said, I’ve had my share of bad luck with rods. One got caught in an electic car window when it started rain while I was moving from one section of river to another. I forgot to look at the rod tip before raising the window. It’s a sickening sound. $25 and I had my new rod section. The next time was forgetting to put the rod in the car after I took off my waders. I put the rod on the top of the car. BAD HABIT…don’t do it. Watching it roll off the roof out of my rear veiw mirror into rush hour traffic is akin to watching your puppy run out in the road in front of a truck. I collected the bits and pieces of that rod and reel, scavanged what parts I could and bid the rest good by. The tip cracked off my first custom built rod fly rod from a wayward beadhead fly. I just reset the tip top and live with it. It hasn’t changed the rod that much…just my ego. I took a tumble in my canoe last fall with rod in hand…D’uh! That scraped a nice gough into the finish of another custom built rod. Thank goodness I build my own. I couldn’t afford to keep up.
A couple of us at a fish in put our rods under the windshield wipers of His car for a short one mile hop over to the next lake. Unfortuantely just as we pulled out of the parking lot a light sprinkle of rain dotted the windshield. He of course put on the wipers and immediately had we had two nine foot flyrods acting like wipers. Mine stuck to the window but his fell on the road. Both rods were undamaged. With red faces we continued on with the trip. :p:oops::oops:
I’m with you on that one fishbum. Some companies charge a small fee for replacing the broken section …and that I can abide by if the rod broke because of my negligence. It’s what keeps me loyal to those companies. HOWEVER it irks me to no end to be forced to pay higher purchase prices (to pad the no fault warranties offered by some). I don’t agree that Sage or others should be encouraged to relax there replacement part costs for rods broken by the users fault.
I didn’t invent nor demand the unconditional warranty thing but if a rod I have has one and I break it I would take them up on it. It’s not as if we were deliberately trying to break it. I guess it is kind of like car and home insurance, it’s nice to know you have it when you need it. I doubt if you Fishbum, wrecked your car and got hurt that you wouldn’t take advantage of your insurance for both your car and yourself as well as any lost time at work. I am assuming that the unconditional lifetime warranty wasn’t free, there just wasn’t a separate policy that you have to buy.
That being said, some of the companies that charge the fee for repairs still charge $700.00 for their rods, so it doesn’t always appear that it reduces the cost of the rod. Also if the rod maker can get $700.00 instead of $300.00 for a rod then that is what he is going to charge until there is no market for it. Your chance of getting that $700.00 rod for $300.00 is probably not going to happen unless, as you say, you make it yourself. So far, knock on wood, I’ve never broken a rod that needed that kind of repair or replacement. Small things like guides falling off, cork deteriorating, fighting butts falling off, scratches, etc., I just repair them myself to save the aggravation and time of sending it through the mail. Anyway, I didn’t intend to get into a philosophical discussion about the warranties, I just wanted to know what my friend’s chances were of getting his rod fixed. I am off my soapbox.
—sagefisher—
x I have done that TWICE and i have a friend that has done that as well. Thats enough to torque anyone off. I’m sorry do hear about your loss, good luck!!!